Sunday, April 3, 2011

Portulaca (Moss Rose) Life Cycle

Portulaca originate from Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina. A drought-tolerant plant and thrive even in poor sandy soil. Portulaca don’t need much attention, they will love you for only giving them full sun and well-drained soil.  Portulaca have thick succulent stem and a low-growing spreader habit. Portulaca can make a great ground cover for hot and sunny areas and look great cascade wonderfully from hanging basket or pot.
Portulaca collection
Portulaca will not open its bloom in overcast days. It needs to receive kisses from the sun for it to open up its bloom. Only for the sun will it bloom.
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Portulaca can easily be propagated by cuttings.
Portulaca propagation
Portulaca can be grown by seeds and you don’t even need to cover the soil after sowing the seeds. It is very easy to collect portulaca seeds. I was dead-heading portulaca old blooms and stumble on where portulaca keep its future offspring. Portulaca seeds are very tiny. The photos will give you hints of where portulaca seeds are.
Sundial portulaca seed
Portulaca self-seed readily in warm climate. Last spring, I may have unconsciously pull out many baby portulaca seedlings while weeding. Only a few self-sowed portulaca were save from weeding after I got busy and they were already big enough for me to remember that I did grow some portulaca plant in previous spring. The flashback of growing portulaca and not able to remember and recognise made me lost many portulaca babies left me feeling so sad and dumb for a while. Here is a reminder of what portulaca seedlings look like before it have true set of leaves and first set of true leaves.
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For more flowers on Saturday visit Ewa.
Bluberry craft and hobby time

31 comments:

Mr. H. said...

Your Portulaca flowers ar every pretty, I have not heard of this plant before.

cikmanggis said...

Oh Portulaca namanya.Cm tak tahu nama pokok bunga ni.Agaknya apa nama dalam Bahasa malaysia ya?

Noel Morata said...

aloha,

these are wonderful ground covers and they also enrich the soils very well...have you tried eating the plants, i can't remember which parts are edible, they are used for medicinal purposes also from what i've heard.

thanks for joining the hot meme this month :)

Mark Willis said...

Yuor collection of Portalucas is lovely. I almost wish it were in my garden, but I don't think it would like our UK weather!

Sally @DrinkingFromMySaucer said...

We had a garden filled with Portulaca in my childhood home. Beautiful!

Sue Garrett said...

Lovely colours - when I have grown portulacas it has been as an annual.

cathy@home said...

I love these flowers and those small siver seeds it's like finding treasure

Patricia said...

Self-seeding flowers...the gift that keeps on giving!

Unknown said...

these are lovely flowers!

JGH said...

Very nice - I grew these a couple of years ago, very easy to grow and pretty. I found they get a little leggy after awhile so I pinch them back. Wish they'd last just a little longer! Thanks for the reminder of what the seedlings and seeds look like!

Buckeroomama said...

Wow, those flowers are so pretty!!

Ray said...

Beautiful flowers!

Alison said...

One of my favorite annuals! I've never saved seed from them, though, so thanks for showing us where they are kept.

miruku said...

Huh! They have seeds?!!! LOL!!! Planted a lot but never knew that! How ignorant, haha- or maybe i deadhead them everyday so i got no chance to see the seeds? I've just pulled up a lot of them. They make nice ground cover but grew wild if not trimmed for sometimes.

littlekarstar said...

Beautiful flowers! I kept thinking of you today Diana, at the garden show seeing loads of ideas for 'smaller' gardens and laughing to myself at how much more productive you are than 'bigger' gardens!! You should have been a stand exhibitor there!

rainfield61 said...

Those Portulaca flowers are very beautiful.

The colours are lovely and sexy.

p3chandan said...

I love them, although but very small but bright and beautiful in a garden! Must try to look for their seeds..no idea about this, always grown by pinching them and stick in the ground!

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mr. H~ I have seen this flower growing in my father's uncle garden but I have never known its name until 2 years ago.

CikManggis~ Tak berapa pasti tapi mungkin dikenali sebagai ros jepun atau bunga kembang petang?Saya pun baru je tahu nama bunga ni.

Noel~ Thank you for the information. I read that the leaves can be crushed for minor cut injury.

Mark~ Maybe growing them annually during spring/summer.

Sally~ Oh it must be very beautiful and forever etched in memories.

Sue~I also grow them annually here but just a few did survive.

Cathy@home~ It was really like finding treasure when I accidently found it secrets while pruning.

Patricia~ I always welcome this kind of gift.

JGH~ Ours are struggling with the cooler weather now. Hopefully some survive through winter. If not we were lucky to be able to collect some seeds.

Ewa, Buckeroomama, Ray~ Thank you.

Alison~ Hope you can collect many portulaca seeds this year.

Milka~ They do make lovely groundcover and border for the veggie patch. You so rajin pruning everyday;-).

Mrs. Bok~ They won't want me to have a stand there as my garden look more like a jungle nowadays. LOL.

Rainfield~ So colourful and I hope it does attract many admirers.

p3chandan~ I hope you have fun searching the seeds.

One said...

That explains. I've been pulling them out but they still keep reappearing. The seeds must have dropped everywhere. Thanks for sharing.

I do like them a lot and grow them at various places so that they do not go extinct. I used to have those big petaled ones but they are all gone now. If I had known, I would have kept the seeds. Now I have only the smaller varieties.

Hughbert said...

Noel: Portulaca oleracea is the edible species - common name purslane, also known as pigweed (this name is used for a few different weeds). It grows wild as a weed here in Adelaide, and is ok to the taste, but can be a little slimy. You can eat it in salads etc. This season I've been raising a cultivar bred for eating, so it will be interesting to see if it is tastier than the wild variety.

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Kwee Peng~Happy to know that I help you to investigate this case in your garden;-).I was not planning to look for portulaca seeds it just happened that nature wanted to teach me where it was. I was so happy like a kid keep on calling my cousin and see what I got in my hand.

Hughbert~I have many pigweed popping out too. but did not know that it is edible.

Christin said...

Allo , salam kenal nama saya irawan , saya sedang menyukai bunga portulaca , adakah cara saya bisa mendapatkan bunga tersebut seperti gambar diatas?

apakah saya harus membeli atau bagaimana ?
saya tunggu kabarnya
terimakasih

Christin said...

Allo nama saya Irawan , saya tertarik dengan bunga portulaca. adakah cara untuk saya dapat memiliki tanaman tersebut ? apakah kami harus membeli atau bagaimana . terimakasih sebelumnya

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Irawan~ Benihnya perlu pos ke mana?

Mama Pongkey said...

Thanks for showing us where the seeds are! :-) my reaction was the same as Milka: they have seeds? Yeay! Usually we just pluck the stem and stake it in the ground and it'll grow. Can't wait to get the seeds now...

Malay-Kadazan girl said...

Mama Pongkey~Yes portulaca have very tiny seeds. It can be a nice project how to grow portulaca for kids as well.

Anonymous said...

Do you have any seeds to be delivered within Malaysia region?

Anonymous said...

saya nk benih ros jepun tu...mcm mn ye....

Anonymous said...

saya berminat dgn rose jepun tu....mcm mn nk dapatkannya ye....

Anonymous said...

sy nk jenis ni please...

Hoehoegrow said...

Lovely flowers, and ones I have not come across here in the uk.